Gang-rape accused refuse TIP, lawyers join protests

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Three of the six accused in Delhi gangrape case today again refused to undergo test identification parade, with two of them telling a court here that they committed a heinous crime and deserved to be hanged even as they were remanded in 14 days' judicial custody.

Amid a wave of protests against the incident, the lawyers' body at Saket district courts here passed a resolution urging advocates not to represent any accused in the case as the offence committed allegedly by them was "inhuman and barbaric".

Around 300 protesters, who also reached the court premises in south Delhi, were not allowed inside by the security personnel.

Accused Pawan Gupta and Vinay were sent to Tihar jail till January 6 by Metropolitan Magistrate Pawan Kumar along with Ram Singh the bus driver, after the police submitted that as of now, their further custodial interrogation was not required.

The three accused categorically refused again to undergo the test identification parade (TIP) by the male friend of the gang-rape victim inside the prison.

"'Hum dono TIP nahi karwana chahte hain kyonki hum logon ne bahut ganda kam kiya hai isliye hamen phansi par latka do' (We do not want to undergo the TIP as we have committed a very heinous offence and for this we should be hanged)," Pawan and Vinay told the Magistrate.

The court then asked the three accused to come inside his chamber to record their denials to undergo the TIP.

Meanwhile, Akshay Thakur, a co-accused who has been arrested from Aurangabad district in Bihar, was remanded in judicial custody last night and he will undergo the TIP on December 26 inside Tihar jain as he had given his consent in this regard.

Mukesh, another accused and brother of Ram Singh, has already been identified in the TIP as one of the culprits by the male friend of the victim.

However, the proceedings relating to the sixth accused are being undertaken separately before the Juvenile Justice Board as he is a minor.

Both the victims, a 23-year-old paramedical student and her male friend, who had boarded the chartered bus with tinted glass windows from Munirka here to Palam around 9.45 PM on last Sunday night, were assaulted with an iron rod by the men after the two resisted before they were dumped on the road side near Mahipalpur flyover, police said.

Earlier, the court had asked the police to move a fresh application for recording the confessional statements of some of the accused persons saying that "what they have said in court is not on oath".